Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

A group of western politicians, industry leaders and other stakeholders convened at Boise State Tuesday. The Andrus Center for Public Policy hosted the day-long conference, which included remarks from Congressman Mike Simpson, Montana Governor Steve Bullock and a few Idaho county commissioners.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the second trial involving people who took part in last winter's armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon.

Jurors last fall acquitted occupation leader Ammon Bundy and six others who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest the federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Three of the remaining seven defendants charged in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge took plea deals Monday rather than go to trial next week.

Sean and Sandra Anderson, a married couple from Riggins, Idaho, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing in exchange for other charges being dismissed. Dylan Anderson of Provo, Utah, took the same step, and all three were sentenced to a year on probation.

A fourth defendant was scheduled to change his plea Monday, but the hearing was canceled.

Leaders of an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon were driving to a public meeting a year ago when police shot and killed one of them at a roadblock.

Now, LaVoy Finicum's widow and their children are planning to hold that meeting later this month in the same town, John Day. Speakers are slated to talk about the Constitution, property rights and other issues.

Earlier this week, President Obama created two national monuments. The newly preserved land is in Utah and Nevada. But before the transfer of power to President-elect Trump January 20, Obama could also designate 2.5 million acres of land near the Idaho border.

As we approach the anniversary of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, some of the people involved still face charges.

It was Monday January 2, 2016 when an armed group of protestors took over the refuge. Led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the occupiers were protesting the jailing of two ranchers and wanted the government to turn over public lands to local control.

Federal prosecutors want a judge in Nevada to schedule a trio of trials for the 17 defendants jailed on charges stemming from an armed confrontation in April 2014 with U.S. officials over grazing rights near cattleman Cliven Bundy's ranch.

But Bundy and his attorney call in documents filed Wednesday for all the defendants to be tried together.

Otherwise, the defendants who are required to wait will spend more months behind bars without a chance to prove their innocence, Bundy attorney Bret Whipple said in the request to Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro.

A self-styled journalist who traveled to Oregon in early January to spread the message of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers is facing federal weapons charges in Grant County.

But a man associated with a recovered machine gun says he was surprised to see the weapon turn up in a federal investigation, noting that federal agents hadn’t contacted him before or after the arrest.

One of the defendants in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon earlier this year has apologized for video rants he made that were widely seen during the standoff.

Sean Anderson, 47, told a federal judge Wednesday he was "embarrassed" and "ashamed" by the videos from the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. In one Anderson told supporters if police stopped them on their way to the refuge they should "kill them."

In an address at the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C., Interior Secretary Sally Jewell stressed the need for what she characterized as a "major course correction" in conservation. Despite her location at the nation's capital, the majority of her comments were about places thousands of miles away.

Law enforcement says Oregon State Police officers were justified in the shooting death of one of the militants from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said at a morning press conference Tuesday that Oregon State Police officers fired six shots on January 26th. Three of the shots hit and killed Robert LaVoy Finicum.

In early January, armed occupiers took over a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon. They said they weren't leaving until two local ranchers who had set fires on federal property were released from prison, and until the federal government handed its lands over to local residents.

Militants from all over the country answered the call of the occupiers to stand against what they saw as federal tyranny. The weeks that followed captured the attention of the nation and ripped the local community apart.